Published 4:00 am, Thursday, January 19, 2012

The restaurant at 42 Columbus Ave. might be best known to San Franciscans as the bygone, eclectic burger joint Clown Alley. It will soon be known as a Basque restaurant.

On the juncture of North Beach and the Financial District, Clown Alley was a wacky late-night haven, open on and off for nearly half a century. The late Tom Duffy - the restaurateur behind the now-closed Myth - took it over in 2007. He renamed it Pickles in 2009; it closed six months later.

Now the corner space is getting its latest resurrection. No clowns will be involved in this reincarnation (hopefully), and if there are any pickles, they will be on plates, not on logos.

What A-List Celeb Left Food Network Star Giada De Laurentiis Cracking Up In The Kitchen?!People

How to Make Easy and Delicious Sugar CookiesGoodHousekeeping

How to Make Instant Pot BarbacoaMyRecipes

These Bacon Potato Stacks Are The New Loaded FriesSeventeen

A Classic Bolivian DishEsquire

French Onion Chicken Tastes Just Like The SoupDelish

The new restaurant will be named Bask, and will specialize in Basque, Spanish and French cuisines. It's the brainchild of two husband-and-wife teams: Sabrina and Patrick Thillard, and David and Suzanne Cot. While Sabrina Thillard is a San Francisco native and first-time restaurateur, the other three are French and have run restaurants and bars on the other side of the Atlantic.

They envision a casual full-service place serving lunch and dinner, with a happy hour in between. The menu will consist of appetizers and entrees, but happy hour might see a selection of tapas.

When it opens after a quick face-lift, Bask will create somewhat of a makeshift Basque corridor, given its proximity to two of the city's tiny handful of Basque-influenced restaurants: Bocadillos (710 Montgomery St.) and Txoko (504 Broadway), with Piperade (1015 Battery St.) not too far away.

No word on how the nearby French Quarter feels about this development.

Redd zone: Richard Reddingtonis nearly ready to open his new Yountville pizza and pasta restaurant, Redd Wood (6755 Washington St.). It's due Jan. 26 in the former Cantinetta Piero in the Hotel Luca, a few blocks away from his Michelin-starred Redd (6480 Washington St.).

Reddington is particularly excited about the design of the 90-seat restaurant. To oversee that process, he hired Erin Martin, an established designer working on her first restaurant project.

She's included a number of artisan-crafted pieces, such as an 800-pound custom-welded private dining-room steel door by Mick Handley. There's also a polished concrete floor, a 12-seat marble bar and steel-back bar punctuated with antique mirrors; the exterior has been redone, too.

"There's a ton of really cool touches, and overall it's been a fun process. It feels good," Reddington says.

But perhaps the design element with the best story is the vintage Wappo Hill mailbox from the former Mondavi Estate. Reddington had eyed it every time he passed by on the Silverado Trail, so when Margrit Mondavi- a Redd regular - came in for lunch one day, he simply asked her for it.

She agreed, but thought it better to make a trade. It being Wine Country, a glass of wine sealed the deal. Now, the mailbox, a whimsical part of Napa Valley history, has been embedded within the steel framing of the wine wall.

Mint condition: Word around town is that Mint Plaza's Thermidor - the retro American restaurant by Bruce Binnand Neil Jorgensen, opened in 2010 - is being actively shopped by real estate agents. The restaurant is still very much open, and even if it were sold, that doesn't necessarily mean it would close.

Football fever: Not even high-powered chefs are immune to football fever. Just a few minutes after the San Francisco 49ers sent the city into a frenzy last weekend, Michael Minasent out a tweet in celebration: "What a game. I am just blown away, may have been the best game I've ever seen! Alex Smithand Vernon Davis- free dinner for life!"

And Mina wasn't bluffing, either. When asked if he's sticking to the heat-of-the-moment promise, Mina confirmed that he meant it.

Gold rush: It's now been nearly a fortnight since the story broke about the possible closure of the Gold Dust Lounge (247 Powell St.).

Now Gold Dust owners Tasios and Jim Bovisare rallying support, with the hope of preserving the historic bar - or at least revisiting negotiations with the landlord.

Today at 4 p.m. the bar will be the site of a news conference, open to the public. Among those expected to attend are San Francisco SupervisorDavid Chiu and others who want the bar to last another 79 years.

More scoops: Check out The Chronicle's Inside Scoop SF website for breaking restaurant news and features. Go to www.insidescoopsf.com.